Reading groups in kindergarten

[Anonymous]

Hi all! From reading these threads, it seems like most kids in kindergarten are really advanced. My daughter is doing fine, but definitely not advanced. My questions are:
1) how often does your child meet with his/ her teacher in a reading group?
2) how often do you get leveled books home?

My daughter is at Beverly Farms and I am disappointed at this point with the reading instruction. She meets at most once a week in a group and has only received two leveled books home this year. This seems unacceptable, but I was wondering if that was the same as other schools. What is the expectation in Montgomery County?

Thanks for any insight!

[Anonymous]

It is very difficult to meet with reading groups in K unless there is another adult in the room. My son rarely met with his group last year in K. Read at home with her and all will be well.

[Anonymous]

When my son was in K, he was in a reading group with just himself and the teacher. There were no other kids in his class reading at his level; however there were plenty in K overall, but they didn't re-group for reading across classes in K. In any event, he only met with the teacher once or twice a month. When I asked about this, I was told that Montgomery County requires that teachers meet with "at-risk" readers (I don't know how this is defined) on a daily basis, and aside from this teachers try to get to the other reading groups as often as possible, but there is no set number of times per week required.

For the early elementary years, our DC did a lot of reading on his own - he had tons of "independant time". He was basically treading water waiting for the rest of the class to catch up. It got better as he got older.

[Anonymous]

My child is at Farmland. 23 kids in his class, no aide. He meets with his reading group every day and brings home leveled readers (4-5 at a time) about three nights a week. He keeps some of the same books for a couple weeks, and then some occasionally get switched out as he masters them. I would say he's had at least 15-20 different books so far.

[Anonymous]

PP here. One correction-I actually think they only meet in reading groups three times a week, not every day.

[Anonymous]

As PP stated, the stronger the reader you are the less your group meets with the teacher. My K-er used to cry because the teacher never called her up. She was also in her own group so it required the other 20+ students to be occupied.

She did bring books home in K but they were really miserably boring. We never used them..just got our own stock from the library. After a certain point, they stop with the guided readers and use 'real books' which are better.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all of the replies. My big concern is that my daughter is NOT a reader yet and is still not getting reading group time. It seems like Farmland has the right idea as the only way (in my opinion) for the kids to learn is within smaller groups. I will continue to read with her at home and hope she progresses without the assistance of her teacher!

Daughter is also upset that she does not get more time with her teacher!

[Anonymous]

It's unrealistic to expect a lot of individual time with the teacher. There are 25+ students in the class. At the K level, there is nothing that the teacher can do that you can't do at home with her.

[Anonymous]

If you think your child needs more concentrated time, you should stop waiting and start teaching her to read.

[Anonymous]

My son is at KP. He meets with the teacher in his group 2-4 times a week. He started in the "level 2" group but was moved to the "level 3" group after about 3 weeks. The whole group recently moved to "level 4". I'm not really sure what any of these levels mean, but they are on the back of the books he brought home. He has only brought 3 books home to date, and they were always due back the next day. When he reads one of these books to me, it seems to me like he has them memorized and is not really reading the words.

He was not reading before he started school, but we did/do read to him a lot. We just got him the Tag Leap Frog and hope that it helps him with reading.

There are 23-25 kids in his class with no aide. A few are taken out of the classroom 2-4 times a week to meet with a reading specialist--the advanced reader (1) and a few that are way behind--still working on letter sounds, I think.

[Anonymous]

Right now my son brings home a reader every night, including Friday. This started a month ago when he got a new teacher (enough kids per class to add one). Before that it was once a week, sometimes twice. We were told in the beginning of the year that it would be at least three times a week, but that never happened until the new teacher came.
My sense is he now has reading groups daily. Before the new teacher it was sporadic -- I think there was a schedule but more often than not it was skipped.

As to the level someone mentioned, I was told at the parent conf. that he needed to be at level 6 by the end of Kindergarten. He's now at level 4. No sense of whether that's average or not.

[Anonymous]

Wow. DD doesn't bring home any books, aside from those she checks out from the library. But she is advanced so maybe those still learning fundamentals are bringing books home, but I don't think so. We're at Oakland Terrace and she goes to a small reading group in another room most days. My understanding is that almost all kids rotate through (10 min intervals) with the teacher during literacy stations everyday.

[Anonymous]

My son was 2-yr advanced in K and had group 1-2 x per week if lucky. Agree with others, though, on reading at home. We never had books sent home for him or his older brother.

OP: Don't stress about it too much. Simply read every night with your child pointing at each word as you read it. When child is ready to pick it up, you'll be amazed at the quick progress.

Also, reading expectations aren't as high as you might think. In my view, older son couldn't read going into K, but the teachers tested him as reading about 1 grade level above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's unrealistic to expect a lot of individual time with the teacher. There are 25+ students in the class. At the K level, there is nothing that the teacher can do that you can't do at home with her.

I disagree with this quote. There are strategies and approaches to reading. Reading at home helps but learning how to teach your kid to read with one of the strategies help which is what teachers are doing.

[Anonymous]

My son has brought back several books at the Level 5 and they were all due back the next day.

MoCo requirement is that all children read at Level 4 at the end of the K. At least it's what the teacher told us.

Each time I volunteer the teacher meets with a different group. Some groups have individual books they read, some groups the teacher reads with them.